Coffee is Medicinal. Here Comes the Science….

For all of you who have ever told me I drink too much coffee, I have just one thing to say: “Hah!”

Study: Coffee May Help Stave Off Dementia

By Anthony BartkewiczMyFoxNational

A study by researchers in Sweden and Denmark found that long-term coffee consumption may reduce the chance of dementia in the elderly.

The researchers tracked the coffee consumption of 1,409 middle-aged participants over 21 years, according to a report in the New York Times. Those who reported daily coffee consumption of three to five cups were found to be 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia. Over the course of the study, 61 patients did develop dementia, 48 of them due to Alzheimer’s disease. The lead author of the study, Dr. Miia Kivipelto, told the Times, “This is an observational study,” she said. “We have no evidence that for people who are not drinking coffee, taking up drinking will have a protective effect.”

Medheadlines, reporting on the study, quotes Dr. Kivipelto’s theories that coffee decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes and amyloid plaques in the brain — both of which can raise the risk of dementia.

The study appears in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

I was going to add more, but I forgot what I was going to write. Crap! Must not have had enough joe this morning….